27 OCTOBER 1929–10 MARCH 2016
Neil Cameron McLeod was born in London, the only child of David McLeod, a boilermaker’s manager, and Helen McLeod (née Gordon). Living in Carshalton, he had a happy childhood until the age of 10, when his father died due to heart problems caused by smoking.
Neil and his mother moved to the Chapeltown area of Leeds, where there were family connections. Around 1943 they moved to Edinburgh, where there were also family connections, and where his mother went to work in Symington’s coffee factory in Logie Green Road (see Breaking news, 12.1.15).
Here he finished his schooling and went to work for ‘The Store' (St Cuthbert’s Co-operative Society) – a leaving card from this job graced his sideboard for the rest of his life. He lived with his mother at various addresses, including in Marchmont and Dublin Street, until settling in a council house in the Inch.
It was in his late teens that Neil became a Baptist, attending the Morningside then the Dublin Street churches, then moving with the latter to Canonmills in the 1980s. Neil was committed and active, taking part in the local Christian Endeavour group, attending gatherings and serving on various committees.
His mother died in 1965 and Neil went to work as a bus conductor for Edinburgh Corporation Transport in 1966. Around the same time, having to give up the council house due to council policy, he bought the top-floor flat in Bellevue Road where he lived until 2013. In 1983 he was transferred to the office in the Annandale Street Depot, from which he retired early in 1992.
Neil appeared to be a quiet, unassuming man, but he had many interests. He had been a Jambo since around 1940, attending Hearts matches and shareholders’ meetings into his 80s. (He’s pictured below on the day Hearts won the Cup.) When the three-flight trek to his flat in Bellevue Road became too much and he had to move to sheltered accommodation in Donaldson Court, off Bonnington Road, he stipulated a maroon carpet.
He was a regular concert-goer, making a point of attending Festival concerts. Before it became too difficult, he was a keen traveller, including many Eastern Bloc countries among his trips abroad. He also maintained a keen interest in current affairs, having kept diaries of world events from 1946 until around 2013, and was a loyal Spurtle subscriber, reading each issue avidly and passing it on to friends.
He was proudly independent to the end – sometimes to the consternation of friends. He resolutely refused to enter the Internet age, and used his gentle wit to cope with the difficulties of dealing with bureaucracy by telephone, and the vicissitudes of old age. When asked how he was, he’d often beam and answer ‘Still here!’
Though Neil had no children or siblings, he will be missed by his extended family of cousins, friends from Canonmills Baptist church, Heart of Midlothian FC and Bellevue Road, friends and staff from Donaldson Court, and last but not least his carers, particularly Karen and Jackie, with whom he had a great rapport.—David Sterratt